JackFavell
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Posts posted by JackFavell
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I'm telling you, he made Major Strasser seem like a mere boulevardier.
Ha! That is the truth!
One time I swear Burt wriggled away by doing a handstand up and out of Henreid's grasp!
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Sorry I keep jumping in on conversations, but I was going to make a comparison between Jack Holt and Richard Dix earlier.... we are on the same track!
They both seem similar - rugged transition stars with good voices, who made the most of the early thirties audiences need for strong leading men. Both starred in lots of silents before, but they really seem to have come into their own at the dawn of sound. We look back and say, "huh?" when watching them, they seem so odd to us today. Looking at them we wonder how men so large and overly manly could have been seen as romantic leads. I think they were the larger than life precursors of the more gritty, human Spencer Tracy/Clark Gable/Jimmy Cagney types needed for Depression era audiences.
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Oh, where to begin?
_Bronxie_ - I just loved *Kiss the Blood Off My Hands* (yes _Ro,_ that's the icky title!) .
I was able to get into it right away, as soon as Burt climbed through that window, I was hooked. I loved how the film started, with an expressionistic vision of the barroom brawl, then mystery, and a chase. I do understand those reservations you had, this London is sort of an American version of the real thing, but I loved it anyway. For me, it just seemed very different, romance with noir and redemption and really sensitive performances from Burt and Joan. I liked Burt - I don't know if I could have accepted his inherent niceness and loneliness if it had been anyone else. He was able to convey an innocence, and an animal reaction that could have been very unbelieveable with anyone else playing the role. He's all reaction..... because of what happened to him. He could not respond in a thoughtful way when he's in a threatening situation, and I think Burt's great body language is what makes this work for me.
I don't think it's a knock to relate it to *Odd Man Out*. It's certainly not as great as that movie, but it is a good movie on it's own. It swept me up. I was hopeful, like Miss G was, that somehow, they would get out of their scrape and some kindly judge would listen to them.
MissG, you and I are totally on the same wavelength with KTBOMH, and with *Rope of Sand*. I bought both of them, lock stock and barrel.
Your review of what Dieterle brings to ROS visually was perfect! I liked all the high contrast Moroccan decor and sand and Paul Henreid's house.....beautiful but sterile, it isn't as lush and warm as in Casablanca, there is something colder, sparer, and noirish about the setting here. Something fifties.
Henreid's acting was so good (and everyone else's too) - I loved the stricken, shattered look on his face when losing his possessions, and yet how cold and brutal he was with humans. He was all about possession, he must own - have the best girl, beat the best man, and heaven help you if he finds you are a forgery.
I was almost, almost tempted to say that Burt was even more rugged than Bogie..... but I can't do it. However, watching his movies in order like this, he really gives a great performance here, I can see him learning his craft by leaps and bounds. He's very strong by the time he makes this picture.
I enjoyed the film so much, it was far more fun than I ever thought it could be from just a description. Raines and Lorre were a hoot! I liked it because there was absollutely no pretentiousness about it - it was made to be enjoyed, like all good Curtiz movies... ;D
Edited by: JackFavell on Sep 25, 2011 7:43 PM
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Was it *Whirlpool*?
I saw the end of that one and he was just wonderful, in fact the whole movie was really top notch... but since I came in on it late in the story, I thought she was having an affair with Jack, instead he turned out to be her father. It was excellent, I have to go back and watch the beginning now to see how he got to that dramatic ending.
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I recorded all the movies you mentioned but only got to see Black Moon, which was kind of Lewton-esque to me, except with intolerance thrown into the mix.
Some of it made me cringe, the poor white people, so scared of the natives - we are supposed to sympathize with them, when they yell and scream at an old black man to get off the porch? Yeah right.
I still enjoyed it a lot, because I liked Dorothy Burgess, and Jack Holt is really fascinating to me, he's got a really rugged way about him, but what I liked best were his scenes with the little girl. He had a lot of rapport with the kid. I am SO glad he got a day of his own!
More later, gotta run out and do errands...
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Oooh, I love that one!
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I just love Rebecca and George Sanders, amr001. He gives the movie some caddish humor, and a little spicy fun.
BTW, I am a girl, just in case there's any confusion. When I joined, I never thought that it might be a problem. I answer to Jack, Jackie, Wendy or hey you.
There used to be a better print of *The Wonderful Lies of Nina Petrovna* on youtube, with a Russian title - I'm hoping they put it back up sometime, it was pristine.
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There is never enough Gilberto. :x
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Maven, you make me salivate, reading about Clara and Gilberto! I am on a mission - I think I might have this movie lying around somewhere. I must see it.
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You haven't interrupted nearly enough!
Rope of Sand more fifties than Casablanca, and more noir in the characterizations, but it's also a lot of fun, thanks mostly to Claude Rains. But it's a great showcase for everyone.
I like William Dieterle too. What a career he had! I especially like the more mystical films he did, like Portrait of Jennie.
I haven't seen too much of Francis Lederer in his later years, but I'm told he can be really scary in horror mode. I'm not surprised, he was a very good actor early on. I am jealous that you have a Franzi movie I haven't seen!
Edited by: JackFavell on Sep 20, 2011 6:52 AM
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I have no idea what "The Sniper" is, but I am so happy you will be posting here!
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I did finish watching, just today. I'll wait for you to watch too. I really enjoyed it.
To me, this movie really uses the original Casablanca cast to great advantage, because it doesn't try to be another Casablanca, and because Burt is a very strong leading man at this point.
It's lovely to see Claude Rains (in a great juicy part), Paul Henreid (in a great juicy part) and Peter Lorre (in a great juicy part) strutting their stuff and having a blast.
I have really enjoyed all the young Burt films, especially for the sets and lighting - the late forties are so intriguing because they have such high contrast black and white. The sets really seem exotic, even if they are only lowlife bars, desert dunes, or factory work floors.
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> {quote:title=CineMaven wrote:}{quote}Very clever, Jackie! I always read the header. This way I know I'm responding to the right person. I've seen headers just go wacky here b'cuz people aren't reading. I re-wrote this header right below yours, but unlike you I went to the total "high school humor" route. Why?
>
> ]
Because I am the ANTI-JACKIE. ] Muaah-ha-ha!! Me and Slim are sisters-under-the-sink!!Oh you are too funny!
> Saw this clip on YouTube and literally burst out laughing out loud at Durante... and at Whiteside's devilishness.
> Just shootin' the breeze here until the subject gets back to film noir. Don't mind me:
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> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FAx7m-Gv31c
Oh, I just love Jimmy Durante as Harpo in this movie! "Meet me in my room in half an hour.......and BRING SOME RYE BREAD." He's so salacious and ridiculous at the same time.
If you EVER get a chance to read the book *Harpo Speaks*, I highly recommend it. You'll see the real life backstory of this movie... if anything, it's zanier!
It's such an entertaining book, the most brilliant autobiography I've ever read, written by a man who never even graduated from the second grade.
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Hee hee! I can just hear Tony's voice saying that line.
I'm glad you noticed my header. I never usually am bright enough to come up with these kinds of things, but it came to me last night as I was drifting off to sleep..just popped into my head. By all rights, we should be discussing *Brute Force* with that header, but I couldn't wait to use it!
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Maybe I'll save R&S for last....
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No I don't think he would have gone back for her at that point in time.... he was useless wasn't he?
Oh you make me laugh with Woody Strode and Dorothy Malone - I havne't seen the movie but I need to!
Well, I am not very familiar with early Hitch or British Hitch, but I do like *Sabotage*. For me, it's the most interesting of the 30's. Though I also like *The Lady Vanishes* a LOT, I think you'd like Sabotage the best. It's nice and dark, with an extremely compelling performance by Oskar Homolka. In fact, he IS the movie. It's straight Hitch, no chaser, and he does some really audacious things I didn't expect. You've probably already seen it but that's my recommendation for you.
As for any earlier films, you'll have to ask Frank and MissG. I have only seen one scene from Secret Agent, with a little dachsund doggie, so I can't really tell you about that one, and that's as early as I go.
Edited by: JackFavell on Sep 19, 2011 11:51 AM
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Wow! That was great, Maven! I can see that I need to go back and watch the movie again (EEEEK!) because you found so much more in it than I did. They are stuck in a rut without any idea of how lucky they are to be there.
I think I have blocked out most of the second half of the movie, after they transfer to the Chinese junk, except for the ending, coming home relieved and tired and freaked out. Oh, man, it was so horrible - I just couldn't enjoy that part of the movie. Maybe I can try again, on a day when I am not feeling too sensitive.
What I liked about the two leads is how they still ended up functioning as a couple when they were having a hard time. When push came to shove, they came together. This is what I got most strongly out of the movie. I liked Kendall better than you, he reminded me of David Tree, the silly arse of so many thirties British comedies, or Ian Carmichael's twit role from the fifties in I'm Alright Jack. Joan Barry was adorable though, and I think she carried the weight of the film.
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Hahaha! Junior High, High School...
not for the weak hearted. I'm surprised Hitchcock never made a movie about school.... I guess it was way too scary even for him.
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I ran again to the computer, just to make sure it was her. I've never seen her this late in her career before.
The score is magnificent. But I've had the song Autumn Leaves on my mind anyway lately.
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> {quote:title=CineMaven wrote:}{quote}
> Yes, that's him. And the others were good too. (OMG! Maude?s Walter!! That made me chuckle!)
I ran, literally ran to the computer to see if it was Walter - it wasn't.
But your guy, that New Yawk fella, he was just great...Damon Runyan himself could not have picked a better stooge with which to point up the not-so-nice elements of Dan Duryea's woild. *TOM PEDI* - I will have to look up his IMDB credits.... I want to see him in something else.
> The anti-Steve. I like that. I really like that. And that was cute what you said about Ralphie boy bouncing her on his knee. Better Ralph than Kent, I always say. But any ladle'll do that dishes out the gravy. (Goddard in "The Women").
I LOVE that line!
> Oh the games people play.
> Ev'ry night and ev'ry day.
> Your **** theme (for Steve/Burt) is really working for me. It's tickling my fancy. My bejesus? Naaah, that's fine, though Hitchcock gave that a going over.
Oooh.... Hitch usually doesn't freak me out anymore. Usually.
> See...what did I say...you have such a good grasp on films' subtleties. I admire that. I'll have to check that out again. I have the very vaguest memory of that; It was a wisp of moment for me that made me say "Hey..." and then poof it was gone.
A lot of the movie is like that, because it is that push-pull stuff under the words that is what is interesting... they aren't saying what they mean. So it kind of vanishes when you aren't watching it and writing as you watch.
> Your comment...
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> "But honestly, there is something about Burt's sensitivity and almost girlish **** that I find much more interesting than almost anything he did later."
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> ...just leapt off the page for me. I couldn't have composed those words nearly as well (your phraseology...great) and makes so much sense. He is so *viscerally emotional*. ( "Fourteen years!!" ) ("She's gone!!") And then look at him later in *"Sweet Smell of Success"* where his suppressive clamp on his emotions is so tight he'll explode like Mt. Vesuvius. In fact, maybe Sidney Falco *is* Anna...and he's finally got her (him) where he wants him (her). What an Actor, calling on both ends of the spectrum (emotional/withholding) ...believably. I find it interesting when the 'male' and 'female' psychology is switched up.
"Viscerally emotional" This is the perfect description of Young Burt to me. I adore him with his heart on his sleeve.
I love that you made the leap to SSOS, because that is one of the most compelling of Burt's mid to later roles for me. There is something underneath JJ that is very interesting - that "messy" Burt that I like so much, clamped and restrained to the breaking point, but STILL THERE. I do love messy Burt. Not so much the Burt who is all trained and groomed and uptight and tamed.
My favorite later Burt films are
SSOS
The Rose Tattoo
Come Back Little Sheba
The Swimmer
Judgment at Nuremberg
Separate Tables
I like other Burt films, but these I like better, because his characters are wobbly, off their stride. Really late Burt is another story. He gets an almost magical, poignant, wistful quality very late in his career that I like almost as much.
And I LOVE LOVE LOVE your description of the love hate relationship transcribed to JJ and Sidney Falco! WOW! Now that is something I never would have seen a comparison with - but I think I agree - I wrote all around it when we discussed SSOS, but couldn't quite get there. JJ and Sydney are the real couple in SSOS......push pull.....like George and Martha in WHO"S AFRAID OF VIRGINIA WOOLF too. Brilliant.
> I wholeheartedly hear ya! I Now in *"Rich and Strange"* the sexes run 'true' to form. Oh yes...I just watched "Rich and Strange."
EEEEEEEK!
> It's so human, and very much true to some couples. I've been in that relationship. It's tough. I'm drawn to men like that.
> Gee...that must be tough around the heart. I do like it when movies get emotionally sloppy and messy. For me, there's where Art imitates Life; things not tied up neatly with a bow. Sticky wicket, what? In my life's story, I'm not into the push-pull...withholding type...guys like Garbo who you have to pry out of them what their favorite color is like it's a State Secret. (Mine's is blue). Maybe I'm too forthright...(what are they hiding?) Or maybe I'm just lazy. I don't want to have to work that hard.
What can I say, I like a challenge.
("Rich and Strange" gave me food for thought about the Work that Relationships need. By the by...they didn't eat what I think they ate, did they?)
DOUBLE EEEEEEEEEEEEK!
> I'm glad to see I'm not too far off the mark in my thinking judging by your response. (Whew!) *"Stone cold sexy Jack LaRue"* you got that right! *"Did she kill him because he raped her, or did she kill him because she liked it, and had to kill it within herself?"* Holy J. Edgar Hoover. Whoa...and may I say...WoW! What a fascinating deduction. You understand human psychology better than I, Jaxxxon. I shall be more careful how I communicate on this Message Board. Can you read minds?
I don't think so. Don't touch those Twizzlers...not till after lunch.
> **** < { THE TALES OF ALICE } > ****
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> Oh dear...junior high school...the rites of passage. The first sign of independence where *YOU* have to go to your class and the class does not come to you. Schedules and lockers and different teachers and books and boys. Ugh!!! Calgon take me away. You're seeing it all again, through her eyes. You'll help keep her on track. And she'll get through it. Good luck to her in school! If she's smart she'll listen to you. Her mom's a mind reader.
Yeah, I wouldn't go back to junior high for all the Burts in trouble I can find. YIKES.
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God Bless Ruth Donnelly! I am sitting here, disappointed that my Russian movies aren't on today, forced to watch Autumn Leaves, and who should walk in to make my day but the goddess of pointed one liners, Ruth. I bow down to her dry wit.
Because I am the ANTI-JACKIE. ]
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h1. HAPPY BIRTHDAY, RO!